Investments Ltd.

Investments Ltd. is in the highly competitive retail brokerage and mutual funds industry. Customers call an 800 phone number to obtain information, set up accounts, and make initial investments. Calls are automatically transferred to the available agent who has waited the longest since the end of a previous call. Agents are expected to answer customer questions quickly and expeditiously and to maintain departmental productivity by completing calls within several minutes.

A supervisory information system monitors the productivity of the sales agents. An agent logs on in the morning by entering a password, thereby signaling availability to receive calls. Agents are deemed unavailable while they are on the phone, while they are doing paperwork after completing a call, or while they are away from the desk. The system records the length of all calls, tracks each agent's availability, and translates these data into productivity statistics such as completed calls per day, productive time per day, and average length of incoming and outgoing calls. The system records all calls so that supervisors and managers can listen in to monitor the quality of the interaction. This is important because agents might otherwise increase their productivity measures by simply talking faster and getting the customers off the phone. Reviewing past calls with an agent also helps the agent improve.

The overall operation is monitored using both real-time displays and management reports. The real-time display consists of a large board with large red, yellow, and green lights at the top and smaller lights laid out below to represent the desk location of the individual agents. The red, yellow, and green lights indicate whether the incoming calls are experiencing excessive delays. When the red or yellow lights are on, the average delay on incoming calls is unacceptably high, and agents are expected to speed up all calls except those for large accounts or certain types of new accounts. Average length and quality of calls during red and yellow conditions is an important measure of an agent's effort and cooperation. The lights for individual agents also have different color codes, indicating whether the agent is available, on the phone, or on a call lasting more than four minutes.

Supervisors are measured for maintaining agents' productivity and quality. They provide on the job training to supplement the three weeks of training agents receive in a separate training group before answering their first customer call. Supervisors use both direct observation and the information system to monitor agents' work. Supervisors can stagger agents' work schedules to minimize the amount of unused time.

As the new Vice-President of Operations for Investments Ltd., you have scheduled a meeting with several agents who have some complaints about the personal impact of the way work is performed and monitored. You have just left a meeting in which you have been instructed to increase productivity 20% in the coming year or start looking for a new job.

Questions:

1. Use the WCA framework to describe the situation.

2. Use the ideas in this chapter to identify human and ethical issues here.

3. Think about three alternatives: loosen up the system, leave it as is, or make it tighter. What factors would you consider and what would you do?

Back to Useful Cases from Previous Editions

Main Page About the Book Student Resources Instructor Resources Contact Us